The other day I was on a roll writing about my Dad. last night I wrote about dribbling a basketball for the first time in over three decades. Then this morning Colonel Brown made a comment that she misses her Volleyball. And that led to me going back down memory lane to sort through the boxes of my old lives.

I found this picture in my scrapbook. Division Champs in Volleyball. As long as you could pass the ball, and jump, well, I was willing to play that sport. One of the many things that Sports and the Military have in common, is building Teams!
Not only do they want you to participate to get stronger, but to learn Team Building lessons. You have to learn to judge your skill set, and the skill set of others to figure out where you are an asset - and where you might hold the Team back. How can you contribute for the good of the Team.

You are taught by people who have either more talent, or more experience, or both. You don't have to like the guys you play with to play well. You set goals, and you aim for them. When you play any sport, you are always working on dual goals: becoming better personally, and making the Team better.

And there is yet another lesson in this picture. We often hear about Diversity in the News - take a gander at the picture. That is actual diversity. There are Soldiers in that picture that come from the Virgin Islands, Samoa, Poland and Brazil. Along with an inner city kid from Cleveland, and a Farm Boy from Oklahoma. The Kid from Poland became a Citizen when he was 21...and the first thing he did was join the Army. Why? To give back to his adopted country for letting him be a Citizen. Same with the kid from Brazil. Quietly doing their Duty.

Black, Brown, White, Foreigner, we had them all. Just a selection of soldiers from a single Battalion. Could have been from any Battalion when I was in. We just didn't have any Women Soldiers in our Units back then. But we learned and now they are one fifth of the Military. I bet the Colonel can tell us about how that segment of Soldering has progressed over the last four decades.

And so I look back at how something as simple as batting a ball around to get it over the net, can connect people, teach skills, and give life long lessons in Team building. I never even knew I was learning to appreciate people just as they are, and working together to get better.

Go Army!